The Washington Commanders Week 1 matchup to start the 2023 NFL season is against the Arizona Cardinals. Ahead of the Commanders-Cardinals game, let’s make some bold Commanders Week 1 predictions.

The Commanders had a decent season last year, all things considered. Ron Rivera flip-flopped between Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke at quarterback, and star defensive end Chase Young missed all but three games. Washington still finished 8-8-1 and narrowly missed the playoffs in a tough NFC East.

This season, Washington has a new offensive coordinator in Eric Bieniemy and a new quarterback with second-year signal-caller Sam Howell. Most importantly, the franchise has a new owner after Daniel Snyder finally sold the team to Josh Harris and company. That alone may be enough to create a new atmosphere around the organization.

The Cardinals are shaping up, on paper, to be one of the worst teams in the NFL this season, so the Commanders should win this game with relative ease. If they don’t there could be big problems in store. With that in mind, let’s move on to our bold Commanders Week 1 predictions.

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3. The Commanders defense will look like a group of high draft picks

Washington’s defensive unit is stacked with talented players. It should look like a unit full of high draft picks because it is a unit full of high draft picks.

The entire starting defensive line — Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Jonathan Allen, and Daron Payne — are first-round selections, as are linebacker Jamin Davis and cornerback Emmanuel Forbes. Add in third-round picks LB Cody Barton and CBs Kendall Fuller and Benjamin St-Juste, and you have an incredible group of talents.

With this group of highly-touted talent, the Washington D finished 7th overall in scoring last season and fourth in yards allowed. That’s good, but in order to make a move up the standings in the brutal NFC East, the defense will have to have a top-five season.

The (maybe not so) bold Commanders' Week 1 prediction here is that the D will look absolutely ferocious against the lowly Cardinals. Arizona will likely start quarterback Joshua Dobbs (or rookie Clayton Tune), and the rest of the roster isn’t that great either.

Look for the defense to dominate on Sunday and set a solid standard for the season to come.

2. Sam Howell will announce his presence in the NFL

The biggest Commanders' question mark heading into the 2023 NFL season is if the team has a quarterback. Sam Howell was a fifth-round pick in 2022 and only started one game last season. Now, he played so well in that game Ron Rivera said he wished he put him in earlier and the team decided to give him the starting job this year.

Howell and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy both have chips on their shoulder and want to prove something to the league. Bieniemy thinks he should be a head coach after years under Andy Reid in Kansas City, and Howell surely believes he is as good or better as the QBs drafted ahead of him like Kenny Pickett, Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis, Matt Corral, and Bailey Zappe.

Howell has excellent skill position players around him, with Jahan Dotson and Terry McLaurin at WR and Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson at RB. If Howell can get them the ball efficiently and limits mistakes, he could be a winning QB this season.

Against the Cardinals' porous defense, Howell should be able to do just that.

1. Commanders 20, Cardinals 6

The final bold Commanders Week 1 prediction is that the team starts 1-0 with a share of the lead in the NFC East.

Again — and this can’t be emphasized enough — the Cardinals are terrible and probably tanking for Caleb Williams, especially since the franchise owns both their own and the Houston Texans' first-round pick in 2024.

Washington should win this game with ease and even get to use it as a fourth preseason game to try some things out with different players, plays, and schemes.

The biggest issue in this Commanders-Cardinals game is that if the home team doesn’t look markedly better than its opponents, that could be a sign of big trouble in the nation’s capital.

Now is the time for optimism, though. This year’s team has lots of talent, some changes in the coaching ranks, and a new owner who (hopefully) won’t become the worst owner in all of professional sports. There will be ups and downs in the coming campaign, but in Week 1, those things should be enough for the Commanders to cruise to victory.